Chapter 1
Castiel Winchester walked through his quiet apartment, trying to commit it all to memory. He had left the love of his life sleeping quietly in the bedroom. He knew all the squeaky boards, and avoided them, anxious not to wake his lover. He was leaving. The feeling had been building for some time. He couldn't stay.
They had been friends forever; it was completely natural that their friendship had progressed to more than just play-mates. But Cas was adopted; had never met his parents. He knew that he had at least one brother, but had never met him either. Castiel had to get away. The feeling of not belonging had gone on for too long, drifting. Dean had queried the wistful look on his face on many occasions, but he could not tell the only person, let alone only man, that he had ever loved that he was leaving and didn't know when he was coming back.
Castiel had grown up on a farm on the edge of town, complete with a tree house in the 70 year old oak tree. His adopted parents, Helen and Joshua Novak, doted on him, he was their only child as his 'Mother' couldn't have children of her own.
He had met Dean on their first day of school, he had pushed Cas over on his rush to get to the swings, but had stopped, giving up his place on the swings, in order to help up the blue eyed boy. That had been it. Twenty-five years and a wedding later there they were, still joined at the hip.
Castiel was reminiscing. He had caught the first bus that stopped for him, not really knowing where to start on his quest.
Dean had overcompensated in high school, getting with girl after girl, thinking that if he got enough, his feeling and lust for his best friend would go away. Cas, of course, had realised he was gay, when his fear of cooties hadn't disappeared at the age of 15 and he still felt no attraction to breasts, still only the magnetic pull to the boy at his side. Neither party spoke their thoughts; that was until July 4th in the tree house. They were 19. Dean had snuck out six beers and a bag of popcorn from his pantry, "borrowed" his dad's car and driven over to the farm, throwing stones at Cas' window to wake him up. They snuck out and up to the tree house, watching the fireworks burst over the tops of the trees that bordered the Novak's land.
The intertwined fingers were and accident, but then so were the hesitant kiss, the shirts being pulled off and all that ensued. Every touch shooting Cas with more force than the fireworks, booming in the distance.
They had woken up tangled in each other's limbs, under the fleece blanket Cas kept in the small shed for when he couldn't sleep indoors. Each realised the instant blue eyes met green that this was their destiny. Gravity had helped that day when they were four, but it was fate that had liberated the swing.